In my opinion it’s a good idea to fill the plant with as much sugary water as possible towards the end of its life to add weight as well as density.

As the plant comes close to harvest, it’s important to get the plant to use up any remaining nutrients it might be storing away for later use. I’m starting to hear that keeping a high level of pk towards the end of the cycle is also a good idea.

Osmosis[1] is the movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, aiming to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides. It may also be used to describe a physical process in which any solvent moves, without input of energy, across a semipermeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, but not the solute) separating two solutions of different concentrations. Although osmosis does not require input of energy, it does use kinetic energy and can be made to do work.

Net movement of solvent is from the less concentrated (hypotonic) to the more concentrated (hypertonic) solution, which tends to reduce the difference in concentrations. This effect can be countered by increasing the pressure of the hypertonic solution, with respect to the hypotonic. The osmotic pressure is defined to be the pressure required to maintain an equilibrium, with no net movement of solvent. Osmotic pressure is a colligative property, meaning that the osmotic pressure depends on the molar concentration of the solute but not on its identity

So with this we know that to remove the build-up, we need to add a lower concentration of ppm but at the same time fulfill the plant’s needs until the day of harvest???

My jury is still out on this one so I am hoping for a lot of good feedback people!

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis “Osmosis”

Are you back? Ok, then. On we go. We already covered two of our most popular systems, the WaterFarm® and the MegaFarm®. Both are great systems for beginners and experienced gardeners alike, the MegaFarm® being the much larger of the two, capable of growing enormous plants. Coming in alongside them is another versatile system, the PowerGrower®. One of the GH expert staff described this system as the system your grandmother could manage, meaning it is just right for a beginner and is accessible to all types of gardeners. PowerGrower® has a hexagonal shape, just right for one plant at a time. You can easily grow one 5 foot tomato plant in just one PowerGrower®.

It has a single growing chamber at the top, with an integrated reservoir below. The hexagonal shape enables growers to place units close together, when plants are small and then separate them as the plants grow. When several PowerGrowers are nestled together, it looks like a high-density honeycomb: a streamlined network, all working to grow amazing plants for you!

You can order the PowerGrower® in one of two forms: complete (a stand-alone system) or modular, which is designed to use with the GH controller that supplies power to several PowerGrower® units (if you want that honeycomb).

One of our past blogs gives some great advice for setting up your PowerGrowers. You can read all about it here.

EUROGROWER

Just about anyone can grow beautiful, healthy plants using hydroponic methods! We are here to help you get started and to guide you through every step along the way. This is the second in a series of blogs, focusing on helping beginners get started. Keep checking back for the latest installments and leave a comment if there is a topic you’d like to see us cover.

What kind of system is right for you? The way to begin answering this question is to ascertain what your needs are.  What do you want to grow? How much yield are you looking for? Where will you be growing? For example, if you want just a few tomato plants for your household, a smaller system like our best-selling WaterFarm®, is perfect: compact, easy to set up and get going. This is our low-maintenance system. You can learn more about this system here. PowerGrower® is another good beginner’s system. It has a hex shape, just right for one plant at a time. You can easily grow one 5 foot tomato plant in just one PowerGrower®.

POWERGROWER

Do you want to grow many plants at once to, for example, donate veggies to your local food bank? Then try a complete system, made up of multiple modules. The WaterFarm® comes in an 8 pack, for multiple plants, but the best multi-unit system for beginners is the EuroGrower®. The EuroGrower® provides users with a simple, yet elegant approach to home hydroponics, especially if you want to grow several different crops at once. You can successfully grow big, healthy plants with the EuroGrower® because it is easier to manage and control. It has a simple, re-circulating system and tops feeds with just one reservoir.

You may also want to try the MegaFarm®, if you want to grow larger plants, like fruit

AEROFLO2 30

 trees (mmm, fresh avocados) or four smaller plants, all in one container. If energy conservation and sustainability are your main priorities, the EcoGrower® is the hydroponic system for you. It’s reliable and simple to use. We will have solar-powered EcoGrowers® available soon, as well, so stay tuned! If you are looking for high growth rates, look no further than the AeroFlo2 or the RainForest. These high-production systems offer legendary growth rates and very high yields, much higher than some of our other systems, which means that they also sometimes need a little extra attention. The AeroFlo2® is a turbo system that will crank out amazing plants for those who are keen to sustain them. The Rainforest® is especially great for cloning and plant propagation. It has a vortex sprayer that mists the underside of roots for constant water circulation, without harming tender young roots. Seedlings can be started in the Rainforest and later moved to other systems, like the WaterFarm®. Most beginners prefer to just buy seedlings but propagation can be fun to explore too! Once you have pinpointed your hydroponic needs and goals, you can choose the system that is right for you!

RAINFOREST 66

If you want to see some of our systems firsthand, before you decide which one is right for you, you can see them at the Gen Hydro booth at the Max Yield Indoor Gardening Expo next weekend and talk to our expert staff about each one. You can also see some of them at our retail partners. Click here to locate a store near you!

Stay tuned to this blog for more in-depth analysis of each our hydroponic systems as we continue to update our series called “Sizing up the Systems” (Part one and Part two are already posted).

Orchids are incredibly popular among plant enthusiasts and it’s easy to see why. Each of the many species, varieties and colors produce their own kind of unique beauty and appeal. However, growing them can be tricky and getting them to bloom and stay healthy is even trickier! Here, we offer an alternative to the conventional orchid growing method.

Most orchids, especially the popular Phalaenopsis, grow naturally in treetops and jungle canopies, where there is little soil. Generally speaking, their roots thrive in bark and moss in the wild. That is the usual medium for growing orchids in pots. There is normally no soil involved. So, it’s just an easy step from there to growing hydroponically! Orchids thrive in a soilless environment. Plant your orchids into a hydroponic system, add a growing media, water and nutrients. That is all you need to do! It takes the guess work out of wondering when to water; you can stop worrying about root rot and wilting leaves. It also eliminates the threat of most diseases, since the growing media are inert.

The well-balanced nutrients, found in our FloraNova Grow, are the perfect way to start healthy root and foliage growth. It’s is especially ideal for helping your orchids get established in their new hydroponic home. Healthy root growth builds the essential foundation for overall success. FloraNova Grow is a unique formulation of highly purified minerals, plus natural additives that combine the best of both the hydroponic and natural gardening methods to facilitate healthy growth. Use FloraNova Grow throughout the structural growth phase and into the first 7-10 days of transition. Switch to FloraNova Bloom for the flowering growth phase.

Our FloraNova Series has the perfect nutrient balance to support orchids. The NPK is 7-2-10, with many micronutrients (like iron and calcium) included, to form a near-complete, nourishing product to aid in the foliage growth and establishment of young and fragile orchids. Try growing these unique beauties hydroponically and watch them flourish!

We love to share success stories from our customers and other fans of hydroponic growing. Stephen, at Garden Connections in Columbus Ohio, is having great success with a wide variety of vegetables, using our General Organics line. Stephen tells us that the GO products work really well for his flourishing lettuces and booming tomato plants (both pictured here). Four of the tomato plants pictured are in a Waterfarm 8-pack that they reduced to a 4-pack. They adapted the Waterfarm system, to suit their needs. Garden Connections is also growing coffee (Coffea Arabica) plants- in Ohio!! What other way could you grow fantastic coffee in the Midwest? Only hydroponically! They are also seeing good growth in their avocados, another tropical plant that flourishes under the precise care and feeding of a great hydroponic system. Our General Organics line produces amazing, abundant organic produce, even crops that wouldn’t normally grow in that region!

Garden Connections provides the latest hydroponic systems, supplies, indoor gardening equipment, organic nutrients and growing supplies. If you are in the Columbus area, stop on by Garden Connections to see all those plants thriving and tell Stephen we said hello! If you have a hydroponic success story that you would like to share, visit our Facebook page, hit the “Like” button and leave a comment! Don’t forget to share your photos! We love to see what everyone is growing!

Hydroponic Economics has a good, simple post with tips for troubleshooting your drip system.

Today on Huffington Post, “Hydroponics” is included in a list of the 30 Most Underrated Innovations of 2010. Here at GH, we have actually been bringing innovation to hydroponics for 3 decades, but I am glad to see that hydro is gaining more mainstream recognition. It’s an amazing tool for providing fresh crops, no matter where you are on the globe. I’m also glad to see that they linked to the rooftop Rainforest 318 video:

#14 — Hydroponics, no, not intended for home marijuana growth
Another interesting green initiative, hydroponics, was picked by none other than Shawn Connally, Editorial Director of MAKE and CRAFT magazines. Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants without soil, using water as the base because mineral solutions are what are vital to plant growth, not soil itself. Here’s a geeky DIY, how-to one Brooklyn dweller did to create a Hydroponic Herb Garden on her rooftop. Green is good!

How often do you change your reservoir? I only change mine every couple of weeks, because my system is really stable. I don’t see much fluctuation in pH, and my res is filled with beneficial bacteria that I keep happy with a biofilter. For me, it’s a matter of effort vs. reward and my garden generally rewards my minimal efforts! But over on the GHE blog, the question was addressed by their head of R&D, William Textier-

Question: “How often should you change the nutrient solution?”

Answer: “It depends on the quality/price ratio between nutrient costs and crop yield and return. If this is an important ratio for you, it is best to replace your nutritive solution every 10 days. If it is not, you can keep it up to 3 weeks without problem, providing you regularly verify your pH and EC levels, and adjust your solution accordingly. Do not discard your old solution. If you have home potted plants, or a garden, use the old solution, with added tap water, on your soil plants.”

General Hydroponics’ FloraSeries is the formula that has produced more high yielding grows than any other in the world. It is the cornerstone that the entire hydroponics industry was built on. Some things never change. There is nothing we will ever alter in our definitive 3 part nutrient.

Despite our dedication to the integrity of our original recipe, in the 3 decades since GH introduced FloraSeries, we have grown and blossomed as a company. Our researchers continue to create cutting edge, advanced nutrients for all types of growers. The GH engineers constantly strive to implement new technology and increase our use of renewable energy. And our visual designers are always at work on eye-catching and informative labeling.

Introducing the new art for FloraSeries. Everything about the new labels has been improved. The classic elements that you recognize in Micro, Grow, and Bloom now have more real estate on the bottle. The text is clearer, and the information you need the most, the NPK, is even easier to find at a glance. It is a fresh perspective on our most consistent product.

Related Content and Knowledge:
FloraSeries Q&A
FloraSeries Bottling Video
FloraSeries in Antarctica

Anybody have plans to come out for Grow 2010 in LA? Urban Garden Magazine has been doing shows in the UK for years, and I am stoked to have one in California this fall!

I am in awe of this incredible modern farm built in a converted swimming pool. The McClung family purchased a foreclosed house with an empty and broken down pool in the backyard. Instead of filling it with concrete, they filled it with life.

The Garden Pool is a remarkable and ambitious setup in the Sonoran Desert. They transformed a dysfunctional urban landscape into a lush and massively producing hydroponic and aquaponic garden. A project that started with just $1500 investment in materials now produces more than enough food every day to feed their family of 4. Oh, and did I mention it’s run on solar power? Inspired yet?!?!?

GardenPool.org

Read more about the Garden Pool at the Arizona Republic website.

Randall was in NYC recently and visted Bronx Hydro and Garden. They offer free classes for growers on Saturdays for their customers who are interested in learning more about everything from systems and feeding to cloning and lighting. Randall had the opportunity to meet some amazing people during his talk on the Basics of Hydroponics.

Randall met with a class of about 15 students. He spoke about the basics: pH, PPM, different styles (flood and drain, aeroponics, drip, NFT, aquaponics, DWC, passive), different medias, and nutrition. Everyone was engaged and interested and the group went off on several tangents about cloning and hydroton versus coco.

At the end, Randall hooked everyone up with samples of FloraSeries, Floralicious Plus, and Kool Bloom. Bronx Hydro just opened a new store in Brooklyn (Bklyn Hydro), so people in NYC have two great options for learning about growing. I’m going to be in NYC in 2 weeks and I have their spots down on my list to check out. And when Randall heads back for a new class, I’ll be sure to let you know!

GH sent a great team to Maker Faire Bay area, headed by Luke Silverman. Karlo, our engineering assistant, also came and he took the shots I’m posting today.

They spent the weekend at our booth, which was filled with lush plants and examples of hydro systems. But my favorite part was the cush leather sofa with a perfect view of the music stage and the OkGo performance.

One of the most famous visitors to the Maker Faire is the Electric Giraffe. She walks around the lot dropping house beats. No, seriously. She’s standing in front of the Ray Gun Gothic Rocket Ship, a 4 story installation from another place and time. To get a better view, click the picture for a larger image link.

I don’t even know what this is, but its on fire and it looks like it spins. In my book, that makes it awesome!

Have you seen the Mentos and Diet Coke videos? Where they do the Bellagio Fountains? This is their soda rocket bike. This video from their Maker Faire 2009 show is epic.

Check out Maker Faire Re-Cap: Part 1, and stay tuned for more.

I swear, the hydro roses never seem to stop blooming. I love the dark red and the moon rising in the background of this shot.

This yellow rose with the tinge of pink smells like cinnamon. It’s totally spicy.

The white ones are unique because they open all the way up and show their yellow centers right when they start blooming.

More Roses on the GH Blog: April 2009, October 2008

Youtube user Migpics created a great video featuring the green beans sprouting in his hydro system. Its totally captivating.